Underground Raves Seep To The Surface

Raves: The underground scene

Lawmakers Want To Ban The Drug-saturated Dance Parties, Once Secretive But Now Held At Popular Clubs.

March 30, 1997|By Twila Decker of The Sentinel Staff

COCOA — A young teenager in overalls holds a Vicks nasal inhaler in her mouth and blows a jet of menthol into another girl's eyes until tears drip onto her cheeks.

Six other girls stand by silently in the nightclub's restroom waiting for their turn to have their Ecstasy highs ''shotgunned.''

Nearby, a girl crouches in a ball, rocking back and forth. Her head is tucked between her knees. The smell of vomit and sickly sweet menthol permeates the room.

Outside on the smoky dance floor, music pounds from synthesizers and drum machines at 142 beats a minute. Pictures of psychedelic moons and stars hang from the black walls.

A girl who looks no older than 16 leans against a girl to her left and gives her an open-mouth French kiss. Then she steps out onto the dance floor and begins rubbing against a male. Nearby, three young men, who look like high school football players, are rubbing one another's backs and hugging.

It's 4 a.m. and this is a rave, or what promoters prefer to call ''an all-night dance party.'' It's parties like these - where drugs are the rage - that state lawmakers are considering stopping.

But such a move, ravers say, won't put an end to the parties. It will just push them underground.

This particular party is at Outer Limits, a new club at the edge of Cocoa Village. At 2 a.m., the scene had changed dramatically. The alcohol was gone, and the crowd became younger. The 200 partygoers, in their teens and early 20s, come from all over Central Florida, including Orlando.

For five bucks, anyone over 16 can dance to the high-paced beat from 2 a.m. to sunrise. But the concern is not the dancing - it'sthe drugs that go with it.

Many ravers are fueled by Ecstasy pills, called ''beans,'' and GHB, called ''G,'' a cheaper, less pure, liquid form of Ecstasy. The two designer drugs often contain heroin, a drug that killed 123 people in Florida last year.

To keep their high going, the ravers blow air through the nasal inhalers into each others' eyes, which is called a ''shotgun.'' While high, they massage and kiss each other, which they say makes them tingle. They also use menthol rubs, which they say gives them a cooling sensation - as if they are ''glowing.''

One young woman who used to sell drugs at the local rave clubs put it simply.

''There would be no rave scene without drugs. There would be nothing,'' she said. ''That music is there to take you on a mind trip, and the drugs are there to help. So when you have that drug you are already spacey, and the music takes you there. It takes you on a mind trip.''

Here to stay

Upset about the drugs, lawmakers have proposed a measure that would prohibit clubs such as this one from keeping their doors open after last call at 2 a.m. Violators could face a misdemeanor charge and lose their liquor license.

The city of Orlando, which is known for all-night dance parties, also is considering taking steps to stop raves. Officials last week formed a task force, Rave Review, to come up with recommendations for eliminating the drugs without stopping the parties.

Orlando led all of Florida in the rate of heroin overdose deaths last year. In the past two years, 50 people have died in Central Florida from the drug. Almost all of the eight teenagers who died of heroin overdoses last year in greater Orlando were known to frequent raves.

Ravers say closing the clubs will just force the parties underground where they began and where there is no supervision or available medical attention.

Tampa, for example, passed an ordinance last year banning the all-night parties. Since then, some teenagers say they still go to underground raves in that city.

''This is a subculture that has been in existence for a long time,'' said Rich Thurston, who promoted the rave at Outer Limits. ''It is not going to go away just by some silly little law proposed by some old, gray-haired people who think everyone should go to bed by 8 o'clock.''

At least in the clubs, they say, the police, the news media and anyone else can monitor what's going on. If they hide their parties, they say, keeping them in check will be nearly impossible.

Some self-proclaimed ''true ravers'' actually want the club parties outlawed. They would prefer that the scene return to its underground days, the days before rich, suburban kids joined in because it was the cool thing to do.

Another concern about closing after-hours clubs is the predicted increase of '''one-offs,'' occasional parties with thousands of people of all ages. The parties are thrown by promoters who rent buildings and sell tickets, which cost as much as $30, through Ticketmaster.

Last month, 16 people were arrested and five young people hospitalized for drug overdoses after attending a one-off at the Kissimmee Valley Agricultural Center.

The year before, thousands of partyers denied access to a rave at the Kissimmee Civic Center trampled landscaping and broke windows. Inside, partyers vomited throughout the building.